Hunger initiative inspires giving spirit

Donors purchase animals for needy

Keith Hopkins, 5, of Memphis feeds Lolita the llama Saturday at Heifer International's Living Gift Market at Mullins United Methodist Church in East Memphis.

Mike Maple/The Commercial Appeal

It was hard to miss the llama on the grounds of Mullins United Methodist Church Saturday.

It "greeted" shoppers wanting to purchase a charitable Christmas gift at Heifer International's first Living Gift Market in Memphis.

The Arkansas-based organization works to end world hunger by giving plants and animals -- hence the name -- to impoverished people in more than 120 countries. In return, the group requires the people who have been helped "to pass the gift" by giving one or more of the animal's offspring to another needy family.

A $10 donation could buy a share of a pig while a $500 gift purchased a cow.

The llama drew Kimberly Dunigan and her girls to the white tent. She purchased rabbits for her grandmother.

Annette Bickers purchased a five ducks and geese.

Bickers already was familiar with the project. She visited the organization's ranch in Little Rock when she went to the nearby Clinton Library.

"I just had several people I wanted to remember," she said.

That's what drew Laila Kassees to the market. She purchased a goat.

According to the group's catalog, goats can give a family up to a gallon of milk a day. Many even have enough left over to make yogurts, cheeses or to sell.

Kassees grew up with goats in her native Palestine.

Shoppers also were entertained by a group from Rhodes College who manned a display on honeybees. The students are studying world poverty and hunger this semester in their Theater for Social Change class.

"We're changing society one bee at a time," said Alicia Queen.

Saturday's market collected about $7,000 in gift purchases, said Todd Montgomery, a community relations coordinator with Heifer International. "That's very good for a first-time event."